Base

Wood Burning Pizza Oven - Base

Preparing the ground and creating the base concrete slab for the wood burning pizza oven was a lot of work. After mixing the oven slab I wish I had bought an electric concrete mixer to use for the rest of the project. Future builders take my advise and buy a concrete mixer. You can sell it when you are done.

Follow the links at the bottom of each page to see each stage of the construction project, or go to the Cooking, Fires, Hints, Favorite Lines, and Recipe sources links (above) on how to enjoy using your wood burning oven. Enjoy!

Plans for this oven were based on the great plans created by Rado Hand. You can see Rado's work and at www.traditionaloven.com. For the best information on the latest best plans, materials, etc check out Rado's web site.

Note amount of rebar used in wood burning brick pizza oven base. Also you can see where i have dug multiple holes for concrete piers on the right edge. Soil this part of the Dallas Tx area is highly elastic, high clay content, and adding piers was a precaution in this part of the sloping and backfield yard.

An interesting and important part of the oven hearth construction was adding an insulated core under the area where the firebrick would be placed. When this oven was constructed, a popular approach used here was a mixture of vermiculite and concrete . See picture. An oven built today would likely use new high tech insulation board. Same note goes with insulation over the oven chamber, now using high tech insulation blankets vs loose vermiculite.

Vermiculite core covered with concrete

"flood cured" (water layer on top) concrete to slow curing in Texas heat

Preparing for next step, firebricks for cooking hearth laid out. Included laying out location of walls and cladding outside of walls.